Is because more players are more powerful and the courts are slower, Tim Henman said that the courts are wimbledon where noticebly slower compare to 5 years ago. Tennis ball were also heavier and racket technolgy could be another reason, thats my 2 cent in for the theory.
I do wish there were more serve and volley love watching those guys play i thought rafter was awesome but i rank edberg just ahead of him though.
Even Pete was beautiful to watch when people actually started to return his serves and force him to volley.

Rafter and Pete weren't what i would call good friends remember the famous "what's the difference between him and rafter 10 slams" ouch.

Becouse it's harder to learn.
Of course some may say that the courts are slower(and they are), rackets help playing from the baseline more than S&V style(that's true), but look at mr Bjorkman - 34 yers old, great doubles specialist and Wimbledon semifinalist(at least). That shows the real problem - the new style of play developed in tennis academies. It all comes down to the fact, that most of the guys(and almost all girls) out there didn't learn the basics of net play. Everyone would agree that S&V requires more speed and better precision, solid serve difficult to return, great flexibility etc. But if you do it well it's still very much effective especially on grass. It's easier to stay back and hit the ball as hard as you can, or chase every ball down etc. And if you look at some rallies on grass nowadays, you could easily see how many of them could end quicker if the ofensive player came to the net to finish the point off with a volley. Well that's my point of view.

There are many reason why serve and volley players are not as prevalent as they used to be. Racquet technology is certainly a factor, with advent of new lighter and powerful racquets it's easy to pass players that come into net. Also the courts and balls have been slowed in some events making it harder to get a weak return to volley way.

All of these reasons may factor, but two words can sum up the change that caused the end of the serve and volley; Andre Agassi. Agassi was the first of a new generation of players that could hit the ball very powerfully off the ground and dominated opponents primarily from the baseline. If Andre was the player that symbolized the change, maybe Lendl was the father of the change. The grip change popularized by Ivan Lendl known as the western grip or semi-western grip allowed the players to hit the ball with much more topspin and therefore pace than ever before. This topspin and pace made it easier than ever to pass net rushers. The new spin from these shots improved the return of players, allowed players to dip the ball extremely low and at high speed toward oncoming net rushers, this increased difficultly on the volley in general with the new spin and pace.

Although still an effective game plan, serve and volley tactics are still employed in today’s ever-modern game. The pure serve and volley player can have a tough time making a living unless they have a great serve and superb hand eye coordination on the volley. In general it takes serve and volley players much longer to develop than the ordinary player. Mastering the serve and volley game is quite complicated and some players like Patrick Rafter didn’t see success with there own game until much later in their career.

It's much harder in today's game to be an effective serve and volley player due to the new techniques in ball striking. To simply put it, only a great serve and volley player can cut in today’s game. It’s much easier to make a living on the tour from the baseline. The science of striking a ball has changed since the 70,80s, and even early 90s and players can simply hit the ball harder these days because the tennis stroke has evolved.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by leng jai

Anyone who says any player has no chance against Dolgopolov is clearly trolling.

Racquet technology, better baseliners and slower courts are usual explanations, but honestly I feel that it is not only that. I think that it IS possible to play more serve&volley. Maybe THE ONE will come along? But he is not on the radar right now... Everything tells you there is 5 years ahead without an elite serve&volley player

Funny thing is, when Borg came around with his (semi) Western forehand grip, his game was called OBSOLETE and he would never win Wimbledon unless he adopted cornerstones of modern game - universal (continental) grip and one-handed backhand.

When Lleyton Hewitt was 18 and dominating a lot of the S/Vers I knew it was going to go out of fashion. I remember one match against Sampras in particular on a fast court where he was winning the point everytime Pete got to net, and losing everytime Pete stayed back. He made it look so easy too.

All you had to do was hit a low but accurate return, and have enough speed to track down the halfvolley. Lleyton did both well, and the court looked all of a sudden a lot smaller for the S/Ver.